jmbacon

[jmbacon]

Rummaging around I found some old books in the house, happy days for my bookcase :D One of them is Huckleberry Finn published by T. Nelson & Sons. Did some research and reckon it could be between 1910 and 1950 (not a pro at this by any means). Anyone able to shed some light?

#old books #vintage #huckleberry #finn #books #bookcase

[jmbacon]

D&D moment.

When a sinister many eyed lizard man asks your 3rd level monk if they would trade their soul for dark power. Handed it over before the sentence had even finished. Obviously the rest of the players weren’t too impressed, but dark powers.

#d&d 5e #evil monk #soul #oops #d&d

[jmbacon]

INT_2020_07

    “Quickly, let’s go.” J3nny pulled Cupholder out of the space and checked around the nearest corner.

“What are you thinking?” Cupholder was expecting a mad capped plan if any. J3nny tunred around and looked at Cupholder with a sly look in his eyes.

“Fighting these guys is out of the question. We’d be wiped out in seconds, trust me I’ve dealt with their engineer before. We need to take the stealthy approach. Unfortunately, that will require splitting up.”

“What! Why can’t we go together? It’d be safer.”

“The hidey hole we just used is the only one in the tunnels that will fit both of us. I’m going to give you another piece of software to allow you to identify safe spots.” J3nny held out his hand to Cupholder who reluctantly grabbed hold of it. The notification for a download appeared again and Cupholder let it run. Suddenly the piece of wall they had just been hiding in started to glow a bright green colour. “When you see a green patch of wall and need a place to hide, jump in.”

“Ok got it.” Cupholder was looking less than comfortable.

“It’ll be ok. All you need to worry about is getting into the second level of People.com. I’ll be able to find you once I get through. Just avoid the scary security squad and everything will be fine.” Without saying another word J3nny crept away down one of the tunnels and left Cupholder alone.

    Seeing no alternative but to find a way out, Cupholder turned to go down the opposite way. It was silent and upon looking round the corner a green wall was visible right at the end of the corridor. Cupholder started down the corridor listening out for any traces of movement. It was clear, but Cupholder stepped into the safe spot anyway to refocus. It was still quiet and Cupholder slowly continued further down the tunnels. They seemed to go on forever and it made Cupholder quite anxious to get out as soon as possible. A noise. It was coming from a side tunnel not far off and approaching fast. Cupholder looked around for a safe spot, but there wasn’t one. The last one was around a corner about fifty metres back. Too far to get around before the footsteps revealed a possibly hostile enemy. Cupholder creeped to the corner and stepped back against the wall, waiting to get the surprise attack if it was required. The steps reached the opening to the junction. Cupholder looked across and saw an intimidating looking assault rifle barrel sticking out of the tunnel end.

“Did you hear that?” A rather rugged voiced cautiously asked.

“You there! Stop!” Several loud bangs rang out causing Cupholder to flinch. “Quickly this way we need to capture the target.” The footsteps faded away from the junction and back the way they came.”

“Oh, shit. J3nny.” Cupholder took a glance to see if the coast was clear. Alone again.

    After forty-five minutes of careful sneaking, hiding, resting and panicking Cupholder was standing in front an emergency exit door. It seemed to be the only way to get out of the tunnels and the large number two on the door obviously suggested that it led to level two of the website. Cupholder carefully opened it up and stepped out into a large green field.

“What, the?” The surreal sight contained an ever expansive field dotted with spaciously placed cubes. Each cube was white and had a small door and no windows.

“So this is what Ad-free premium membership looks like. A space to peacefully sit back and take in the social media of the world.” Cupholder knew to wait for J3nny, but the temptation to explore was too great. Cupholder approached one of the cubes and decided to knock on the door. Why this was a good idea seemed to be completely irrelevant.

“What on Earth! Who do you think you are invading my space?” The door opened and out stepped a strange alien looking avatar. This particular avatar was dressed in a shiny teal coloured foil jumpsuit, trainers and had a pair of headphones on her head. Cupholder had only gone and stumbled upon the experimental pop icon Peech-T.

#fiction #sci-fi #internet #future #vr #writing #fantasy #story

[jmbacon]

Screen Blink.

     2am. Computer on, eyes focused, browsing the web. Room lit only by the screen. Pizza box on the floor. Silent flat. Everyone else went out. You stayed in. Preying on the forums. Looking for a fight. Found one. Takes the bait. Back and forth. For them, a losing battle. For you, just another win. The screen flickers. A split second face stares back. Dark. Empty eyes. Snarling teeth. You blink. It’s gone. A familiar face.

[jmbacon]

LONNNNG hiatus for studies

Finally getting time between classes now to start up with writing and doing projects in my spare time again. New ideas in the works to stem off of modules this term so hopefully I’ll be able to start posting regularly again. Also I blame myself for buying finally Bloodborne and Dark Souls 2 in the same month.

[jmbacon]

Finally got a uni bookcase sorted mid way through second year. Gonna need a bigger bow with the arrival of next semesters books. :L

#bookcase #english #university #books #writing #falmouth

[jmbacon]

INT_2020 - 6

(High pitched ringing and inaudible words)

     Cupholder was on the floor of the tunnels, dazed and confused by the explosion of the door that had be blown into nothing. The VR goggles weren’t working and all visuals were down making navigation almost impossible. The audio wasn’t clear either due to the high energy feedback scrambling and warping all of the data in the surrounding area. They were going to be there in a second anyway, the squad that had been briefly seen trying to force their way through. Only now they were clear to make sure Cupholder never had an internet adventure again. Expecting to be disconnected in a matter of moments Cupholder decided to reflect on the amazingly short adventure that had been experienced. Evil drones, internet social media zombies and hard-core security squads. Who’d have thought all this was the reality of the new internet not to mention the weird old man with the girl’s name who had strange ninja like abilities.

“Oh well, so much for no longer being a social pariah.”

“CUPHOLDER!” A voice echoed into Cupholder’s headset. It was coming from somewhere, but the exact whereabouts was impossible to pinpoint. “I heard the explosion, I should have said a while back, but I’ve hacked your headset to be able to speak directly to you in an emergency.” It was J3nny, but he was still way back in the tunnels there was no way he’d get there in time to help. “Get up you don’t have time to think.” Cupholder stumbled upright and tried to regain control of the avatar. A pinging noise sounded inches away against the wall, it sounded like a bullet. “Follow the direction of my voice in the headset I can guide you to my location, my scan showed you’re suffering from temporary loss of VR visual functionality.” Cupholder didn’t wait around and ran forward and listened for further directions. “Right.” Turning immediately Cupholder was gaining full control over all movement quicker and quicker. “Go left.” Cupholder caught a shoulder on the corner and flailed around down the corridors trying to keep track of which was led to safety and which led back to imminent doom. The security team followed closely behind sending off the occasional shot, but mainly aiming at non-essential parts of Cupholder’s avatar in an effort to disable it.

“Right team we need to make sure the target is brought back semi intact so that we can decode and analyse how it was able to break through the barriers. The higher ups want this kept under wraps as well so we can’t let it or any other accomplices escape,” the engineer commanded the others with a grave sternness in her voice.

“Only a few more metres to go.” Cupholder was almost back to J3nny. No visuals had returned yet, but all hearing and movement had been fully restored.

“J3nny I can hear you! Are you close by?” The headset was silent and Cupholder had no idea how close J3nny was or even if J3nny was still there at all, it wouldn’t have been a big deal for him to have bailed and saved his own avatar. Multiple footsteps could be heard and Cupholder had nowhere to go. “Quickly! In here!” A pair of hands reached out of the wall and grabbed Cupholder’s by the shoulders and back through the wall. “Shhh.” It was J3nny he had pulled Cupholder into a small crack no bigger than the two of their avatars combined. The footsteps stopped just outside.

“Where did it go?” The engineer sounded perplexed and angry. “You idiots let it escape! Spread out into two teams, I’ll back track and make sure it doesn’t try to slip past.”

“Yes boss,” the rest of the force replied. The footsteps trailed off into three directions and J3nny carefully squeezed past Cupholder.

“It’s all clear by the looks of it. Are you alright?”

“My visions gone in my VR goggles. Nothing is broken, but I can’t see anything everything else works fine.”

“Hmm, have you tried turning it off and on again?”

“J3nny they were using some weird high-tech anti-virus security weaponry I doubt that will…oh wait a second…umm never mind I see you now.” The crack was being masked by a one way mirror that meant that they could see out, but the security team couldn’t see in.

“Cupholder there is no time for feeling silly we need to move before they corner us. Can you show me the way you came from?”

“Are you serious!? One of them said they were heading back that way to guard it, we can’t just walk straight into a trap.”

“Chill. I have a plan.”

#writing #story #future #vr #internet #gaming #fiction #sci-fi

[jmbacon]

INT_2020 - 5

     Cupholder and J3nny headed down the tunnel away and looked back to see that none of the social zombies had followed them through.

“They’re aware that they are not allowed down here.” J3nny said clutching at his damaged arm. Cupholder scouted around the corner and checked for a place to rest.

“J3nny over here I think we’ll be safe for a bit.” Cupholder helped J3nny to sit down on the floor. It looked clear down both ends of the tunnel, but neither was sure where they had ended up. There was no sound and the walls were bare apart from the regular light shard floating under the ceiling. J3nny looked over his wound and raised his hand up to it. A dim light began to appear and he held it in place before he looked back over to Cupholder.

“I have seen a lot of people use that program before, but never with such power. What kind of hardware are you using?” Cupholder began to look a little bit uncomfortable.

“Nothing fancy just something my parents got me for my birthday. They seemed really excited to give it to me. Kept going on about revolutionary CPU’s and obsolete forms of hard drives and stuff. Even the VR headset they gave me looked different.”

“Hmm, well we’re worry about that later. For now I need you to go down the tunnels and search for a way out. Who knows how many more levels we will need to go down.”

“What!? I can’t go alone what if more of those things show up?”

“You’ll be fine. Just copy my fighting moves and if that doesn’t work run like hell. I should be finished with repairs in about thirty minutes. Have to make sure nothing is corrupted, last thing you need is me turning into a zombie behind your back.” Cupholder recoiled at the thought of that. Nonetheless the tunnels needed to be explored so Cupholder got up and set off down one of them taking one more look back at J3nny before turning a corner.

    The tunnels seemed to be the kind that admins would use to maintain the site from within, which meant that there had to be entrances to get in and out. Cupholder had been walking around for about thirty minutes when something made a noise slightly ahead. It sounded like a faint tapping noise, J3nny should have been ready to go by now, but Cupholder felt like this wasn’t anything that couldn’t be handled alone. The tapping was coming from a small alcove in the wall, but Cupholder still couldn’t see what was causing it. Inching closer and closer revealed what looked to be a service door, with steps leading down onto a walkway. However on the other side of the door and the source of the tapping was a fully armed cyber SWAT team that appeared to be user operated like everything else. They were using assault rifles to try and break open and the door, luckily it didn’t look like they had been granted admin authority to enter yet. Cupholder went up to the forcefielded window in the door and peered through at the security team, each one equipped with a helmet, armoured jackets and leggings as well as strange looking boots. They all carried the same standard side arm, a pistol, but each one had a different primary weapon. One was obviously a sniper standing at the back, the two in the middle consisted of a heavy cyber munitions expert and an engineer, whilst the two at the front and shooting at the door were standard assault. They seemed to be shouting at each other, but the engineer was quietly looking at her INT_nav device. Cupholder became a bit concerned when she looked up and gave a thumbs up to the other two at the front who proceeded to move away. Even worse a strange device materialised into the engineer’s hand and she stepped forward to the door and placed it, giving Cupholder an icy glance as she did. She backed away with the others and Cupholder had a gut feeling to run away and get J3nny. However at the first step the door exploded and Cupholder hurtled down the tunnel and slammed into the floor, still connected to the internet, but with lost visibility in the VR goggles.

#internet #story #writing #gaming #future #cyberpunk #vr #sci-fi #fiction

[jmbacon]

Finall essay this semester, then 3 weeks of reading for the next. With a lot of relaxation time in between. :L

#essay #falmouth #university #Iamsotired #writing

[jmbacon]

INT_2020 - 4

     Surrounded and outnumbered forty five million to two Cupholder was gripped in fear while J3nny fought off a couple of nearby social zombies.

“Give me a minute I’ll think of something.” J3nny shouted as he punched through the head of one of the zombies, it slumped to the floor but the body didn’t disappear. “How’s the entrance looking?” Cupholder turned around, but the entrance was blocked by a mass of zombies who slowly closed in, several zombies still separating the duo simultaneously.

“I don’t think we’re getting out the way we came in. Why don’t we just log out and log back in? Try again?”

“No! Don’t do that we need to disable the system before we can get out or else our IP addresses will be traced jeez don’t you watch any films.” J3nny had a brief look into the distance of the dome, it was amazing how forty five million users managed to fit in such a small space. “Wait a minute Cupholder, premium users shouldn’t look like this. All of these are generic bodies the kind only given to free users. Cupholder was busy pushing away a pair of scythes that had taken a hasty swing.

“What about below?” Cupholder’s suggestion was pretty likely. “Hurry up though I’m about to die…virtually.” J3nny crouched down and jumped high above the zombies as they collided into each other.

“Look out!” He hovered over Cupholder’s head and charged his fist, it started flashing faster and faster with a white light. After a few seconds it turned into a solid light. “Ready!” J3nny flew down at the floor at high speed and let out a shockwave that knocked Cupholder to the floor and the zombies tumbling away into each other. The floor remarkably fell away slightly, but J3nny was visibly exhausted.

“Wha..what was that?” Cupholder got up and walked over to make sure J3nny was okay.

“That was a hacking trick I was given a long time ago on an old forum somewhere. Takes a lot of power from the processor though.” J3nny looked up at Cupholder. “If we’re gonna get out of here you are gonna have to give it one more hit. Hope your computer is up to it.”

“Me? How on earth do I do that, I’ve never hacked anything in my life.”

“It’s alright I’ll send you the file with the program to do it. Look at your INT-nav.” Cupholder looked down at the now glowing INT-nav to see the awesome_aoe_attack file show up. “Quickly download and execute the program, the social zombies are coming to their senses. The zombies were getting up and reforming raising up their scythes for one last attack. Cupholder quickly accepted the file and downloaded the file as fast as the download speed would allow. Of all the times for a sibling to be downloading the latest MMO. “I don’t want to hurry you, but our digital avatars are about to be digitally murdered and tossed in a digital ditch.”

“Alright it’s almost done.” One of the zombie lunged at Cupholder from behind, but J3nny managed to lunge back and shove a fist through the monster’s chest not before it managed to cut his arm though. “Ah crap, that’s gonna need a fix.” The awesome_aoe_attack.exe button flashed up on Cupholder’s INT_nav and with a quick mash of the button was sent flying into the air. J3nny kicked away the zombie hanging on his fist.

“Ok now steady your fist and aim it at the crack.” Cupholder looked at their fist which was beginning to flash like J3nny’s did. Aiming it at the ground it flashed faster and faster until it turned the same solid white signalling the attack was ready. Pointing the fist down Cupholder flew at the floor faster so much faster than J3nny had, the fist collided with the ground and caused an immense shockwave. J3nny held fast on the ground and looked on in awe at the power displayed. Cupholder was drilling through the floor sending further shockwaves out, pieces of the floor darted towards the zombies pinning some to others and ripping others to shreds. The ground gave way beneath Cupholder and Jenny sending them tumbling down as Cupholder returned to normal. Both landed in a heap of rubble on top of each other below. They were in another tunnel.

“Cupholder are you alright? I’ve never seen such devastation created by that file. You are something special.”

“I’m fine. Having a bit of response trouble, but it’s clearing up. Are you alright? You’ve been injured.”

“Yeah I just need to find a place to rest and make a quick scan that no malware was forcefully uploaded. We best have a look around.”

J3nny headed down the tunnel towards the awating levels of People.com, Cupholder took a brief look up at the hole created and then followed after.

#story #writing #future #gaming #internet #cyberpunk #vr #fiction #sci-fi

[jmbacon]

INT_2020 - 3

     Cupholder and J3nny made their way towards the heart of People.com, the former still not sure why they decided to follow the strange old man with a girl’s name. The tunnel they were in was dark and foreboding. From the opening at the end there came a low hum and a plethora of colours bouncing around like someone had left their television on.

“What is that?” Cupholder was trying to peek over J3nny’s shoulder.

“Shhh, we don’t want to attract any undue attention to ourselves or the system will try to purge us from the system.”

“Will that kill us?”

“No this isn't some horror sci-fi. You’d just be ejected from the Internet, although I guess for some that is like death.” J3nny looked back and gave a dramatic gaze at Cupholder. Sneaking up the opening the humming got louder until it became apparent that is was music and advert jingles playing. Cupholder recognised ones from gadget sites, detergent commercials and horrible takeaway songs. “Prepare yourself Cupholder for the true face of People.Com.”

    As they emerged from the tunnel, Cupholder was dazed by massive flashing screens littering the inside of the force field dome. Thousands of the drones that had been present at the gate were flying around, blasting users with they’re crimson red eye lasers. One of the users in front was just standing there ignoring the duo who had just entered. J3nny carefully approached and placed his arm on the shoulder of the avatar slowly turning it towards Cupholder. The sight terrified Cupholder right down to the core. It was like staring at a husk, the avatar’s eyes were wide and blotted with a series of flashing colours similar to the ones on the screen. Their mouth was agar and drooling some sort of viscous fluid. The body of the user was thin and skeletal like, something akin to a zombie. Lastly just to the left of its face was a transparent screen being beamed from the INT-nav on its arm.

“That looks like a news feed screen.” Cupholder stepped a bit closer to observe.

“Yep, most of the poor fools here spend about eighteen hours a day staring at one be it at work, at weddings, at funerals they just can’t turn away.”

“What about the flying things then?” One of the drones drifted past them without noticing them.

“Ah well those are Advert-eye-sers.” J3nny chuckled to himself for the obviously bad choice in puns. “They float around and inject adverts into directly into the user’s feeds. Coupled with the giant monitors and you’ve got yourself the purgatory of marketing.” J3nny walked towards another drone floating by and jump kicked it in half like the one that almost inject Cupholder. “It’s the eyes you have to watch out for. They fire out a concentrated stream of ads that work their way directly into the wallets of those unlucky enough to be hit by it.” He grabbed the eye and forcefully yanked it out of the socket.

    All the monitors turned red and the site seemed to slow down its functions. Almost instinctively the rest of the drones turned towards J3nny who was standing next to the wrecked drone holding the glowing orb. The zombified users still remained silent and didn’t notice the change that occurred. Cupholder was still standing next to the user shown to him by J3nny when a drone slowly approached it.  The eye let out its signature beam of crimson red light directly into the eyes of the avatar, which began to twitch and convulse. Arms started to violently sway and its arms grew longer with the hands turning into scythes. Gradually it raised its new weapons towards Cupholder who glanced at J3nny still standing on the other side of the newly formed thing. As soon as the beam of light stopped the news feed turned red and the avatar let out a blood curdling cry. Each of the other drones began to do the same with the other avatars as the one facing Cupholder lunged possessed with the will to delete the intruders.

#story #writing #gaming #cyberpunk #internet #future #fiction #vr

[jmbacon]

INT_2020 - 2

“Halt, please verify your INT username.”

“Cupholder6641.” The guards stood on both sides of the laser defence grid protecting the door to People.com. Eight foot tall and hiding behind shields as solid as their stares, they surveyed the frail frame of Cupholder. Before it expanded people had hacked the site on a regular basis, changing profile pictures, making snide remarks at family members and of course, starting poke wars. After the fabled 2 day poke war, where over 2 million users deleted their accounts, the site reformed in a terrifying new form.

“Please fill out the form on your INT-nav for evaluation.” A blue light emerged from the visor of the guard and materialised into a form in front of Cupholder’s INT-nav. The list of questions varied from the obvious “What is your name?” To the more obscure “If a cat peed on your lawn, why would you have found yourself outdoors and away from People.com?” Cupholder answered the questions one by one as the guards continued their silent watch over cyberspace.

     Cupholder finished up the form and submitted it back to the guard on the right whilst his partner continued to survey the horizon as if something was approaching. The form was scrutinised to the highest level, Cupholder had rumours that those who failed were blacklisted across the entirety of the internet. Blacklisting was a sentence worse than death, one where you were condemned to explore the monotony of real life without connection to people you didn’t even know. The guard asked Cupholder an additional question not mentioned on the form.

“Would you like to sign up for a paid membership or continue with a free membership?

“Free membership please.”

 “Request accepted, please stand by for a sponsored advertisement.” A bay opened up in the top right hand corner of the gate and a small drone like machine floated out towards Cupholder. It had 2 small metallic wings and a large round body. In the centre of this body was a red orb like eye that made Cupholder feel a little disturbed. It was as if it could see everything that a person experienced or ever searched for in the confines of the internet. It drew closer the eye beginning to glow vibrantly and pulsating.

3…

2…

1…

“Alert, blacklisted spotted one hundred metres from gate.” The guards sprung to life and moved away from the gate to take up defensive position with their shields. Each suddenly pulled out a sword nearly four times the size of themselves. The droid also transformed as its eye split into three segments and a large sniper rifle slowly emerged. Cupholder was caught in the middle caught in the middle of something epic, albeit a little cliché. New user, saved from evil, indebted to help a cause.

     The drone started firing what seemed to be advertisements at the mysterious figure. Five ways to grow your hair back. Why do doctors hate this person? Online credit checks. All the spam and junk that would drive a user mad. Each shot missed their mark as the blacklisted strafed from side to side with incredible agility. They leaped into the air and kicked through the drone slicing it in two. Simultaneously the guards swung their swords at great speed working in a synchronised manner to take down the threat. However it was too fast for them, ducking and weaving between the blades getting gradually closer to the one on the right. Frantically the guard started flailing about possessed with fear, the blacklisted moving so fast that Cupholder had yet to make out who it was. Then came the punch. In a brief moment the blacklisted’s fist connected with torso of the guard sending out a shockwave that knocked over Cupholder and caused the other guard to stumble away trembling at what was being witnessed. Bit by bit the assaulted guard began to crumble and break away into dust as a blast of light pierced through his back and into the distance.

“Im..possible, no one…can break our…kind of sec..urity.” He wasn’t dying, but his real life security user certainly has a thing for the dramatic.

“We figured it out and we’re coming for the rest of you.” Cupholder could see who was causing all this damage now. An old man wearing a robe, his white beard and shaggy hair covering over his facial features. His fist looked frail yet the amount of power being exerted was uncanny. All that remained of the guard were a few fragments of code and his sword and shield. The other guard ran for the gate, his clearance allowed him to pass through the laser grid unharmed.

“Ah, looks like he is on his way to tell his superiors what he just witnessed. This is good. Now for you my friend, did that drone have time to indoctrinate you to the ways of People.com.?” He had a gentle looking face, but a fierce look in his eyes. Cupholder was silent. “Hmm let’s see.” He waved his hand and Cupholder’s INT-nav suddenly activated transferring data into the mind of the old man. “Cupholder6641. No default image. Didn’t put any other details in. Nothing to define you whatsoever. Well looks like I’m going to need your help freeing the citizens of this social media site.”

“Ummm we just met how do I know I can trust a strange old man with mystical powers who I’ve only just met on the internet?”

“What if I wasn’t an old man, but used this avatar to confuse and deceive other users.”

“Well then I’d have to trust you even less.” Cupholder began to walk off hoping to find some other site to join up to.

“Ok fair point, but what if I was to offer you a quest to help save the internet and restore order to all!” He made a grand gesture with his arms and waved them about like a madman.

Cupholder considered this for a second, a chance to go on a quest. Besides school and ultimate frisby practice there wasn’t really much else to do. Besides it might even lead to some sort of ultimate power at the end.

“Ok we have a deal, but don’t be creepy.”

“Aha well then Cupholder let me introduce myself, I am EpiKJ3nny.”

#writing #story #cyberpunk #fiction #future #sci-fi #gaming #vr #internet

[jmbacon]

INT_2020 - 1

Welcome user please enter name:

Cupholder6641

Please select gender:

Ambiguous

Please select facial image for avatar construction:

Error_404: Image not found. Default image selected.

Thank you, initial set up complete.

Initialisation of internet commencing:

9%

26%

57%

84%

100%

Welcome to the internet User Cupholder6641.

    Cupholder6641 stepped out of the haze of data cubes into the realm of the internet. VR had stepped up its game since the year 2016 and now human/machine interface was the reality of every cyberpunks dream. There was a catch though. The power and influence of the real world search engine companies and social media sites manifested in ways that the mind could not comprehend in reality. Facebook stalkers lurked behind very corner, famous video makers lived amongst a godly cybernetic peak, trolls and hackers dwelled underground some helping stragglers and retrieving lost passwords, other griefing noobs and watching the unsuspecting world though CCTV and unprotected webcams. The corporations ruled with an iron fist and those who denied their law were slammed with a copyright infringement notice or worse had their online persona erased from digital space and time, left to a life of isolation and lack of social media life.

    Cupholder6641’s gear was basic, a standard virtual body, a low level anti-virus shield and a INT-nav device only set up to only explore the most popular websites. It was all upgradeable, since premium rates dominated the internet in the year 2020.  It decided that the first stop would be the social media site People.Com, the world’s largest social network. They had yet to start an account and make friend with the countless strangers roaming the site. Cupholder6641 brought up their INT-nav device and typed in the domain name People.com. Data particles were pulled together to form a pathway leading to the website. Following the path the newly connected virtual being took their first steps into a world that had no limits, but plenty of secrets.

    The internet was a strangely uniform place that from a distance consisted of a large transparent box with a sphere inside it. A few years back a hack took place that had permanently added a sad face to the sphere, which eventually became incorporated by the outside cultures as the true face of the internet. From Cupholder’s perspective the internet was a lot like the real world, cities of information stretching across the horizon. Factories churning out a mass of viral trends. There was also rumours of an ancient forest made of pure light that could only be accessed via a special mod for the INT-nav, supposedly it led to a time where notepad tutorial videos roamed free and you could search for an apple pie recipe without being spammed for weeks on end with ads to do with apple or pie. Legends meant nothing to Cupholder though, only existing in the mainstream. People.com could be seen in the distance, but a force field protected the gated community from those who could not be considered exclusive enough to join. Cupholder’s first taste of the internet would be met here…premium membership.

#writing #story #cyberpunk #internet #gaming #future #sci-fi & fantasy #technology #vr